True Lies

What are lies?
This is what webster has to say about them:

Main Entry: 3 lie

Function: verb

Etymology: Middle English, from Old English lEogan; akin to Old High German liogan to lie, Old Church Slavonic lugati

intransitive senses
1 : to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive
2 : to create a false or misleading impression
transitive senses : to bring about by telling lies "lied his way out of trouble"
synonyms:
Lie, prevaricate,equivocate, plater, fib mean to tell an untruth.
Lie is the blunt term, imputing dishonesty "lied about where he had been".
Prevaricate softens the bluntness of Lie by implying quibbling or confusing the issue "during the hearings the witness did his best to prevaricate".
Equivocate implies using words having more than one sense so as to seem to say one thing but intend another "equivocated endlessly in an attempt to mislead her inquisitors".
Palter implies making unreliable statements of fact or intention or insincere promises "a swindler paltering with his investors".
Fib applies to a telling of a trivial untruth "fibbed about the price of the new suit".

lie 1 a : an assertion of something known or believed by the speaker to be untrue with intent to deceive b : an untrue or inaccurate statement that may or may not be believed true by the speaker
2 : something that misleads or deceives

Most of the statements imply that the speaker must know that what he/she is saying is untrue. But what if the speaker believes in what he says totally and yet it is untrue? Are they really lying ? If one were to take the polygraph to be a decent gauge of whether a person is lying or not, then if the person believes it to be true he isn't lying. For example if a person has been told a lie and he tells someone else, it could be taken as he is lying or he's being truthful. He's relatively being truthful and absolutely lying !!
Anyway, coming back to the polygraph, it is based on the assumption that when a person lies his vital signs change significantly when he lies because it isn't normal for him. Two problems, what if someone is so used to lying that for him its normal? or what if he believes what he is saying is true (true relatively) but actually not true ( false absolutely). In both cases the person can beat the test !
Assuming its human nature to be mostly good and all that, the second case is most likely, then what is true to the guy is not really true to someone else and vice versa. So there is really no such thing as a real truth, just what we believe to be true. Like for example that we are actually alive. We believe we are , and hence its true. But if I were to believe I were actually dead , then I might as well be dead !
Moreover, how far are exaggerations from 'lies'? So many times I have exaggerated what I was saying . Does that make me a lier? What if I actually believe what I say even though it didn't happen and even though I came up with it myself. Am I still lying?
When does an exaggeration actually turn into a lie?
One more thing a friend told me that sarcasm could be a sin cause it is very similar to lying !!!
Maybe next time I call someone a lier, I shall think about all this and refrain from it.

I just couldn't resist

House M.D is supposed to be a drama on fox. Somehow, the main character played by Hugh Laurie ( a Brit playing an American perfectly) and his sarcastic comments make it one of the funniest things I've ever seen . I just couldn't resist putting down some of my fav quotes .

*Everybody lies

*Truth begins in lies

*Humanity is overrated

*There's no I in 'team'. There is a me, though, if you jumble it up

* I choose to believe that the white light people sometimes see... they're all just chemical reactions that take place when the brain shuts down.... There's no conclusive science. My choice has no practical relevance to my life, I choose the outcome I find more comforting.... I find it more comforting to believe that this isn't simply a test.

*Treating illnesses is why we became doctors, treating patients is what makes most doctors miserable

*Occam's Razor. The simplest explanation is almost always somebody screwed up

*The eyes can mislead, the smile can lie, but the shoes always tell the truth

*There is not a thin line between love and hate. There is --- in fact --- a Great Wall of China with armed sentries posted every 20 feet between love and hate.

*And humility is an important quality. Especially if you're wrong a lot.... Of course, when you're right, self-doubt doesn't help anybody, does it?

*If you talk to God you're religious. If God talks to you, you're psychotic

*Perseverance does not equal worthiness. Next time you want to get my attention, wear something fun. Low-riding jeans are hot.

*I asked you what two plus two equals and a day later you tell me, 'Not twenty-five'.

*And find out the truth about who he's been dating. No way a Marine goes a year without getting some blood on his bayonet

There are loads more ! :)